Drone (episode)
A transporter accident involving the Doctor's mobile emitter and Seven's nanoprobes results in the creation of a 29th century Borg. Summary Seven of Nine was practicing her smiles in a mirror when the Doctor entered the cargo bay. Seven told him she objected that he walked in without announcing himself. The Doctor, who apologized, came to her because they were about to start a mission together with B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris to survey a proto-nebula, which would came into existence within a short period of time. While walking to the shuttle bay they talked about the oncoming mission. On route to the nebula they ran into spatial turbulence and talked about the discomfort of class-two shuttles. Seven suggested to Tom Paris why he did not designed a new and larger shuttle, if he was so discontent with these class-two types. When the proto-nebula appeared, the shuttle was caught in the gravimetric shear of a plasma surge a few seconds later, which caused the shuttle to loose its propulsion. When Voyager received their distress call, Captain Janeway ordered transporter room one to beam the shuttle crew out via a emergency beam-out. Because the shuttle was still caught by the proto-nebula, Ensign Mulcahey had trouble to establish a good pattern lock but was able to beam them out. Despite a short problem to separate their patterns he was able to re-materialize them safely. When they stepped of the transporter platform the Doctor's holo-matrix began to flicker, it seemed his mobile emitter was damaged somehow. After B'Elanna transfered his program to sickbay, she told him that some emitter circuits were fused during transport and to see if she could repair the damage, she needed to perform a diagnostics on the mobile emitter. She and Mulcahey went to the science lab were they started diagnostic routine alpha-three-six, B'Elanna told Mulcahey to check the result the next morning. When they left the science lab some assimilation tubules emerged from the mobile emitter and attached them self to the LCARS computer console it was lying on. The next morning the Doctor badgered Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres at six o'clock in the morning. He wanted to know when his mobile emitter would be repared and could not understand Torres desire to sleep out, while it was the only day that she could. When she walked into the sonic shower, he even appeared on its display and an agitated B'Elanna threw her towel over it and ignored the Doctor completly. About the same time Seven's regeneration cycle was aborted prematurely because she detected a borg presence. She went to the bridge, where Ensign Harry Kim just ended his night shift and transfered command to Lieutenant Commander Chakotay, and told them her concerns. Harry told Seven that sensor sweeps were performed the entire night and no Borg presence was detected. When she suggested that a borg vessel might hide within the proto-nebula, Harry told her that even a borg cube would not survive the nebula. Chakotay told Seven to let the Doctor check her proximity transceiver to make sure it was not malfunctioning. While the Doctor was performing his check, she told him her proximity transceiver was activated again. This had to do with Ensign Mulcahey who started his duty shift by checking the diagnostics results of the Doctors mobile emitter and who was probed by extraction tubules, whom extracted DNA from him, when he entered the science lab. On the bridge Harry Kim noticed that power from the warp conduits was being re-routed to the science lab on deck eight and also detected a force field with a borg signature. Lieutenant Commander Chakotay immediately ordered red alert and contacted Seven that she was right, Borg were detected on Voyager and Lieutenant Commander Tuvok was on his way to the science lab with a security team. When Seven and Tuvok's security team entered the science lab they found Ensign Mulcahey, unconscious but alive and noticed a borg-like maturation chamber which was protected by a forcefield. When Seven investigated the object, she found it contained a drone in its fetal state. Unusual because the Borg assimilate, they do not procreate. When Captain Janeway was briefed by Seven, she was told that the drone was the result of a transporter accident which occurred when they were beamed from the shuttle. Her nanoprobes interacted with the Doctor's mobile emitter when their patterns were temporarily merged. Nanoprobes within the emitter assimilated the diagnostics console and used Mulcahey's DNA as a template to create the life form. Captain Janeway ordered a level ten forcefield and twenty-four hour security around the science lab. She would not terminate the drone fetus unless she had to. Seven and the Doctor, together with Tuvok and B'Elanna Torres, were scanning the drone from astrometrics. Here they found it was human but twenty seven percent of his body was made out of borg implants. Its body armor was made out of the mobile emitters poly dutonic alloy, while the emitter itself was part of the drones central nervous system and could not be removed without killing it. Because of the emitters origin it was in essence a 29th century Borg drone. As a precaution Seven dampened the proximity transceiver to prevent the drone from contacting the Borg Collective. When Seven briefed Captain Janeway about the drones capabilities, internal transporter nodes among other things, Seven was asked to act as its teacher, to teach the drone how to act as an individual. Captain Janeway saw this as the only possibility to prevent the drone from joining the Borg collective. Killing the drone was her last option. When the drone awakened from its alcove it asked Seven of Nine about its designation, although Seven told him it was irrelevant it kept on asking for it. Seven had to initiate a direct neural interface because the drone did not seem to understand her verbal instructions. When she tried to disengage the neural link the drone tried to assimilate all of her knowledge and did not respond to her command to terminate the link. Only when Seven told him he was hurting her the drone disengaged the neural link. Because of this incident Seven decided to use Borg data nodes to teach the drone about its environment. When Neelix brought the first data node, Seven showed the drone how to assimilate the collected data via his assimilation tubules. When finished assimilating its data, he identified Neelix and Seven and was aware of the existence of [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] who was traveling through interstellar space. Seven explained to him that Voyager was not a borg collective but that everyone onboard was a unique individual. When the drone requested more information, Seven told him that he first had to see the Doctor for a medical evaluation. Neelix escorted the drone to sickbay who noticed a slight fear of him among the crewmembers and asked Neelix about the Borg. Neelix evaded his question and asked him instead that he should get a name because every individual had a name. While being scanned by the Doctor the drone asked how he came into existence. The Doctor told him about the transporter accident. Although his existence was an accident, he was told that he was not unwelcome and after some time he would made a fine addition to the crew. It was after all Voyagers primary mission to explore new forms of life. After his medical check, Seven familiarized the drone with Voyager. When they visited engineering the drone helped B'Elanna Torres by predicting the rate of expansion of the proto-nebula. When they visited Captain Kathryn Janeway he told her his designation was One, he assimilated forty-seven billion teraquads of information and asked her if he was sufficient. When Janeway told him he was, One asked to be excused, B'Elanna Torres had asked him to help improve the efficency of the bussard collectors. Seven told Captain Janeway that One had asked about the Borg and she was worried that if he gained more knowledge about them he might seek the borg collective, which would pose a grave tactical risk. They decided not to tell him for the present time. When One was escorted to his alcove by Seven of Nine he again asked to be told about the Borg, when he saw that the alcoves were not Starfleet technology. Seven refused and told him to step into his alcove. Their regeneration cycle was interrupted by Captain Janeway and a security team. It seemed One's cranial implant created a secondary proximity transceiver which transmitted a signal to the Borg collective. Voyager's long range sensors already detected a transwarp conduit. When One made clear that he wanted to meet the Borg, Captain Janeway told Seven that is was time to show One what and who the Borg were. In astrometrics One watched and learned about the Borg. Seven told him that individuals who were assimilated lost their individuality, their minds would be integrated into the hive mind and their bodies would be augmented with cybernetic implants. One told them he desired to had experienced the hive mind where upon Captain Janeway told him if he had done so he would no longer be unique, his individuality would be destroyed. One wondered how the Borg could be so destructive while Seven was not. Janeway explained to him that Seven had regained her individuality but if the Borg had the chance, they would reintegrate her back into the hive mind. Janeway told One that if the Borg would assimilate him they would become even more destructive. When Seven was asked by One if she would rejoined the Borg collective if she had the chance, she answered that Voyager was her collective. Their conversation was interrupted by Commander Chakotays call to man battle stations, a Borg vessel was approaching. One and Seven were on their way to the bridge when he told her about changes in his autonomic nervous system. Seven told him he experienced anxiety, an emotion, a state of apprehension caused by fear, and that she felt the same. Seven told him that they would engage the Borg: although the Borg were powerful, they would resist them. When One told her that resistance was futile, Seven told him this was not always the case. When they entered the bridge the Borg sphere began to scan Voyager and One enhanced Voyager's shields. He and Seven heard the collective, millions of voices calling to them. Seven told him to resist the voices, otherwise Voyager and its crew would be destroyed. Although One managed to break Voyager free of the Borg's tractor beam, his phaser enhancements were not enough to fight the Borg. One told Seven that he needed to be on the Borg ship itself, as he could not enhance Voyager's systems any further. One transported himself to the Borg sphere after assuring Seven they would fail to assimilate him into the collective. When One materialized he told the collective that his technology was superior and if the collective would not stop the attack on Voyager he would destroy their ship. Some drones tried to stop him, but to no avail. One managed to interface with the collective and steered the ship into the proto-nebula. He did not respond to the collective's request to terminate his link. When the Borg sphere came to close to the nebula it imploded. After Captain Janeway ordered Voyager to stand down red alert and deployed damage control teams, Harry Kim detected life signs in the debris field. It was One, alive after using a multi spacial forcefield around his body. Captain Janeway told Harry to beam One directly to sickbay. Upon entering sickbay the Doctor informed Seven that he had already scanned One for injuries: his implants would regenerate but his biological parts were severely damaged. One told her he heard the Borg collective and they now knew of his existence. As long as he was alive, Seven and the crew of Voyager would be in danger. One refused further medical treatment, using his forcefield to stop the Doctor from helping him despite Seven's emotional plea to comply with her wishes. One told Seven that his existence was an accident and that he should never have existed. After assuring her that she would adapt to his absence, One died. Background Information Links and References Guest Stars * J. Paul Boehmer as One * Todd Badcock as Ensign Mulcahey References 47; ablative armor; Borg; Borg Collective; Borg sphere; maturation chamber; mobile emitter; protostar; quad; sonic shower; Seven of Nine; subspace transceiver; teraquad External links Previous Episode: Night Episodes of Star Trek: Voyager Next Episode: Extreme Risk Category:VOY episodes de:Die Drohne nl:Drone (aflevering)